Historic and Unusual Recipes – – French Canadian Blood Pudding Recipe a.k.a Boudin (2024)
Blood Pudding (or sausages) are served in French, Belgian, German, British, Quebec, Acadian, Creole, Austrian and Cajun cuisine.
This Blood Pudding a.k.a. Boudin is baked in loaf pans instead of sausage casing.
Photo courtesy of Banque D’Images
This is my 2nd post in the category Historic and Unusual Recipes. The first wasHow to Cook a Terrapin (or Turtle). I discovered that recipe in a very oldFanny Farmer Cookbookand posted it simply because I found it interesting. Guess what? Almost every day… week in and week out…How to Cook a Terrapin (or Turtle)appears in my list of ‘Readers Recent Favorites’. Who woulda thunk it? And now it’s gonna be interesting to see how well received this French Canadian Blood Puddingrecipe is! ; o )
I made French Canadian Blood Puddingonlyonce, using the blood from one of the pigs we raised. We planned to roast the pig on a special spit – and feed the neighbors, the local family, the family from Montreal and the family from the States.Luckily it was a BIG pig. So big it actually broke the rented spit… but that’s another story.
My husband’s family all told me I’d fed my pigs too much because, when butchered, they all had a lot of fat. They said I ‘babied’ all my animals. Hey, if you were a pig… and it was hot… wouldn’t you be happy if someone gently sprayed you with cold water. Of course you would. I rest my case.
My husband’s aunt Therese and I prepared the Blood Pudding at the Roy Family Farm in St. Flavien, Quebec (Canada) where my husband’s family has lived/farmed for the last seven generations. It’s a huge house with a huge kitchen. There’s a wood burning stove and a modern stove – a lovely mixture of old and new. (I remember visiting around 1970 and there was still a water pump in ‘The Summer Kitchen’. I’ll explain about Summer Kitchens another time.)
I just deleted the paragraph about hanging the pig upside down etc. I didn’t want to gross you out any more than necessary..
When I arrived at the old family farm with my bucket of pig blood, Ma Tante Therese (MyAunt in French.) was armed and ready with the necessary utensils and pans. Ma Tante didn’t speak much English and my French is far from great, but I managed to write down several of her old French Canadian recipes over the years, including this one for Blood Pudding, while I either helped or watched her cook. And an excellent cook she was.
My husband LOVED the Blood Pudding we’d made. And I was pretty darn proud of myself, let me tell you. I did take a tiny taste of it… Blood Pudding has an unusual texture – no surprise there. It does taste pretty good, if you can get beyond the ‘main ingredient’.
My husband loved to eat his Boudin cut into slices and fried. He especially loved it for breakfast with scrambled eggs. At the time I made the Blood Pudding my husband could only eat soft things due to oral cancer. You can imagine how pleased I was, especially at that point in his life, to have prepared something for him which he’d loved his whole life.
Life is short. Prepare your loved ones favorite dishes. Doing so truly is a gift of love!
This recipe for French Canadian Blood Pudding (Boudin) is prepared in two loaf pans.
I’m going to give you the recipe as I wrote it down – although sometimes I’ve written recipes from our French Canadian Aunts half in French and half in English.
In France, the boudin noir is one of the permanent staples of French cuisine, particularly north of the country. Simply put, it is one of the most famous and most appreciated and celebrated blood pudding sausages made in France.
Black Pudding: A delicacy from the U.K., this dish contains sheep lungs, making it illegal to import to the U.S. Mirabelle Plums: Only grown in Lorraine, France, Mirabelle plums are a “protected origin” food, meaning that it is illegal to export out of France.
The boudin of Québec is made of lard, milk, onions and pork blood. It is served in a pan along with a sweet side or a sauce. Since 2018, the Goûte-Boudin de Boucherville association hands out a yearly prize for the best boudin.
However, one of the most rare and prized dishes from the Cajun past is boudin rouge, or blood boudin, a sausage made from various cuts of pork, rice, seasonings, and the fresh blood of a pig. The sausage is steamed or smoked to cook it.
Black pudding is a distinct regional type of blood sausage originating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is made from pork or occasionally beef blood, with pork fat or beef suet, and a cereal, usually oatmeal, oat groats, or barley groats.
Morcilla is especially popular during Christmas. Blood sausages are very difficult to find in US supermarkets. Brussels and Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin are both home to local grocers who produce blood sausage, due to their large Belgian American populations.
Black pudding isn't very common in the US. You usually find it in restaurants that serve British style food. If you asked most Americans, they wouldn't know what it was, and those that do would probably call it blood sausage or black pudding.
Most locals don't even make it out of the parking lot with their links, they just squeeze the filling right out of the casing and into their mouths. (Some folks eat the casing, too). If that sounds too messy, just spread the filling on a cracker or between slices of bread.
To pronounce it correctly, boo – like a ghost says, and then start like you're saying the name Dan, but just don't pronounce the n on the end! Boudin in Cajun Country can be found at grocery stores, delis, gas stations, weddings, birthday parties, holiday parties, but very rarely in a restaurant.
Poutine later became celebrated as a symbol of Québécois culture and the province of Quebec. It has long been associated with Quebec cuisine, and its rise in prominence has led to its growing popularity throughout the rest of Canada.
Boudin is a high-protein, iron-rich Cajun dish, but watch out for the sodium and fat content. Enjoy it in moderation as part of a balanced diet for a tasty treat. Boudin can be a good source of essential nutrients like Vitamin B-12 and niacin, but be mindful of the calorie and carbohydrate content.
Although the casing is made from pig intestine and is thus edible, many people choose not to eat it since it can be quite tough and chewy. At the same time, the filling is usually packed into a boudin less tightly than with other types of sausage, which makes it easier to get out of the casing if you want to avoid it.
Black pudding is also called a blood pudding or blood sausage, and in Ireland is known as drisheen. In France, black pudding is known as boudin noir and the Spanish word for black pudding is morcilla.
The blood orange is known as “orange sanguine” in France, "arancia rossa" in Italy, and "naranja roja" or "sanguina" in Spain (which gives its name to sangria, a mix of orange and wine).
Hare à la royale (also called lièvre à la royale or royal hare) is a classic dish of French cuisine. A whole hare is slowly braised in red wine and served with a sauce made from its heart, liver, lungs and blood.
Introduction: My name is Dean Jakubowski Ret, I am a enthusiastic, friendly, homely, handsome, zealous, brainy, elegant person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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